Everyone may also know that Kail Tescar, my associate producer on these episodes, is the webmaster of one of the largest Animated Star Trek sites on the net...Startrekanimated.com. One of the reasons I asked him to become involved was his ability to capture the essence of the Farragut crew in animated format. He has actually had this service available on his web site for a long time, and I thought I would promote it for him.

We will be putting this as a special feature on the DVD when it is released, but I thought I would share it here.

If you have a few extra bucks, check out his web site and get an animated portrait of yourself. All sales go to Kail...not me, Farragut, or anyone else.

Enjoy!

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One of the biggest events we've had in our Washington, D.C., area club was inviting an artist to do caricatures of us as our Trek selves. I was in the Trek II-VI captain's uniform, and we had a few Klingons and Bajorans as well. It cost more than $150, but when you count in how many drawings he did, it was a bargain and fun to boot.

We were also lucky in that the artist was a huge Trek fan, and he offered to come back and either a new drawing or color in the ones he'd done in black and white. Of course, we had to pay him to visit again, but it was a great success.

Just something to keep in mind while you're at the county fairs and see someone who does nice drawings. The worst they can do is say "No."

With Monday here I wanted to give everyone an update. We are still on track to release the 3rd and final act of Power Source next week. There is a slight chance it could be released this week, but we want to fine tune everything, so I won't set any expectations outside of sometime next week.

For those of you attending DragonCon this year, Power Source will be presented there in its entirety, along with a trailer for the next episode...The Needs of the Many. The trailer will also be online around that same time. We are heavy into the production of that episode, and still expect it to be released before the end of the year.

Everyone...Act 3 (the final act) of "Power Source" will be out tomorrow!!! I appreciate all of the patience the fans have had with this release.

Now, for a bit of house keepings about this episode and the next:

1) There have been some comments on some other boards with fans 'surprised' there was a swear word (hell) in Act 2. Just to be clear...while these are cartoons, they are aimed at fans that watched the original TAS back in the 70's. While a homage to the original episodes, they are written for today and for the Farragut crew. As such, I recommend screening it if there is a concern about the content BEFORE showing to your kids. Act 2 has the aforementioned "hell" in it, and Act 3 has two instances of "damn" in it...One to describe that 'damned planet', and one as an expression of anger. I am all for artistic license and free speech, but I am also making sure I do full disclosure of these words just so there are no surprises.

3) If you will be at DragonCon, the full episode will be shown there. In addition, it will be the first opportunity to see a trailer for "The Needs of the Many"...the next episode written by Jack Trevino and myself.

4) A shameless plug: If you enjoyed these episodes, get a TAS portrait of yourself from Kail's web site: startrekanimated.com, or order a T-shirt from our official site: http://farragut-animated.com/store.html

These episodes were very fun to make: I got to spend time with folks like Chris Doohan, Chase Masterson, Tim Russ and Lou Scheimer, and it gave NEO f/x an opportunity to have a small place in history by putting together our own fan-film. I hope everyone enjoys watching them as much as we had putting them together.

Thanks guys...I really enjoyed this! I've been rewatching TAS with my 8-year old son of late, and this really fits in nicely. A few questions: Early on I remember there was going to be original music using some cues from TAS, but this music sounds like it is directly from the Filmation library. Did Mr. Scheimer give you guys access to the original music? Also, what character(s) did Mr. Scheimer voice?

Possible Spoilers below:

The spheres look reminiscent of the Borg spheres from First Contact. In fact, Capt. Carter makes reference to the "ultimate mission of first contact" in the closing line. Are we seeing, perhaps, the early stages of a Borg invasion?

I know it may disappoint a few fans that we don't have the 'actual' use for those devices...As they say at the end of the episode...it could be anything. And, the nice thing, is that any explanation that someone comes up with is as correct as the next person.

As for the music, the theme is brand new, but the cues within the episode are indeed original. And while Lou did give me permission to use them, it isn't actually his call (as he sold Filmation a LONG time ago). But the spirit of his permission was really what I was looking for.

For a while we did plan to us original music. However, as we moved along in the production, we realized there was a lot of nostalgia associated with not only the LOOK of Filmation cartoons, but the MUSIC as well..Even the composer agreed that it was the right thing to do to use the original music within the episode.

In addition, I have updated the main site (Farragut-Animated.com) with an updated version of Act 3. It appears a name was misspelled, so we updated it and posted the new version. I also updated the posting above for the YouTube video, but the latest version is here:

I know it may disappoint a few fans that we don't have the 'actual' use for those devices...As they say at the end of the episode...it could be anything. And, the nice thing, is that any explanation that someone comes up with is as correct as the next person.

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That was a good idea - nice to see some things stay mysterious - well done for resisting the urge to explain.

I also liked the constant eye changes and the dialog with the Doctor and the ensign.

I know it may disappoint a few fans that we don't have the 'actual' use for those devices...As they say at the end of the episode...it could be anything. And, the nice thing, is that any explanation that someone comes up with is as correct as the next person.

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That was a good idea - nice to see some things stay mysterious - well done for resisting the urge to explain.

I also liked the constant eye changes and the dialog with the Doctor and the ensign.

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Thanks....I liken the end of this episode to Star Trek 4. While we had a big adventure and everything is now fine, we are still left with the question of what the probes (or in our case, globes) were actually for. Could be anything...and it opens the door to a LOT of imagination. As I said, anything you come up with is correct!

It's kind of funny that the review mentions the color mismatching on TAS where a sleeve appeared to be a different color than the shirt, of all things.

Just a factoid for those curious why this happens on a lot of cartoons: it usually isn't a coloring error at all, it's that no animation cel is 100% transparent, so that the same color on two different cels looks different because the one further down in the pile is dulled by the cells above it. At studios like Disney they mixed slightly different versions of the same color for different cel layers to minimize this (the deeper in the stack, the more bold the color).

Clearly, this isn't an issue on CG as used in the animated Farragut film.

Very nice work! I've been keeping up with your updates and appreciate the background information you share with us. The episode was very cool, and being a huge fan of Filmation, thought it was a nice homage. I read in that review there will be a second episode on the way, looking forward to it!

My only real criticisms about "Power Source" are voice acting and script related. I'm forgiving of the acting as it's a fan film and mostly fan's playing actor. As to the script, the idea is intriguing, but it's just too wordy. The four minute briefing room scene and the following "pacing" scene have already been addressed, but what stuck out to me in later sequences was the lack of immediacy. For instance, the crew stand around the corridor of the Azreal discussing what to do next and then beam back, when they should have taken their captives back post haste and discussed next steps in the safety of their own transporter room. The ending scene is also a bit too protracted. I like what was being attempted, as in some mysteries remain mysteries, but it was too protracted a dénouement.

I mention these because they rob the story of dramatic tension. I hope the next episode addresses these issues.